Working remotely or remotely working? San Diegans take wfh to the beach

About a hundred San Diegans decided that Friday’s weather was just too perfect to be cooped up in an office. In board shorts and with briefcases, they took work to the beach.

Word of the remote work meet-up at San Diego’s Pacific Beach spread on social media and dozens turned up Friday with laptops, routers, beach chairs and umbrellas for the pop-up event “that is so PB,” event attendees told NBC 7.

“We’ve got business up top, fun on the bottom,” said Travis Laub, who had a desk set-up alongside his coworkers. “So if we want to, we have the ability to work and then pop in the water for a little surf sesh.”

NBC 7

A remote work meet-up was held in San Diego’s Pacific Beach on March 13.

In San Diego’s “work hard, play harder” fashion, attendees exchanged virtual business cards while a guitarist jammed to Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

“What better way to meet other people while working remote than to come out here and, I don’t know, get some networking in, Daniel Luehm said. The day before the event, Luehm scoured the alleyways of PB for free furniture for his beach set-up.

The event was organized by Scott Muirhead, a social media content creator known for, as he describes it, taking his desk as far as possible. Social media videos show Muirhead and his desk at the Torrey Pines Gliderport to the gates of the Farmers Insurance Open.

For Friday’s event, he wanted to turn Pacific Beach “into the best office in San Diego.” Businesses joined in from Blenders Eyewear, a local sunglass company, to bagel and coffee shops.

“San Diego is the best city I’ve ever lived in,” Muirhead said. “I’ve been bouncing all over the country for the last 5 years and I am never leaving San Diego; it’s like heaven on earth.”

It was not lost on attendees that the opportunity to work on the beach in March may be uniquely San Diego, with temperatures breaking 90 degrees at the coast amid a winter heat wave.

“I have family back home who are in the coldest weather, and I have to tell you, I don’t feel bad,” Laub said.

“What’s snow?” “We got the best snow in town, Luehm said while running his fingers through the sand. “Not a bad way to work at all.”